Lightning News

Celeste Roberts honored as Lightning Community Hero

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning honored Celeste Roberts as the 16th Lightning Community Hero of the 2015-16 season during the first period of tonight's game versus the Vancouver Canucks. Roberts, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, will donate the money to The Skills Center and I'm a Survivor.

Through her motivation to combat generational poverty, Roberts created The Skills Center, a youth development program that teaches kids through sports and steers at-risk youth toward higher education. Ever since the program was established, 372 low-income youth have entered college, 241 students have passed the FCAT and 150 children are participants on youth travel teams. Roberts' compassion through her program has provided a pathway for economic freedom amongst at-risk youth.

In addition to working at The Skills Center, Roberts also volunteeers with Metropolitan Ministries and the Salvation Army to help better the lives of children. Without her vision and determination, these programs would not have been as successful or allowed for the positive success of so many youth caught in the cycle of generational poverty. To this day, Roberts continues to run The Skills Center through leadership, integrity, passion, determination and faith.

Roberts becomes the 195th Lightning Community Hero since Jeff and Penny Vinik introduced the program in 2011-12 with a $10 million, five-season commitment to the Tampa Bay community. Through this evening's game, in total, the Lightning Foundation has granted $9.9 million to more than 300 different non-profits in the Greater Tampa Bay area.